India's software industry eying for 60 billion $ exports

Hyderabad, Nov 7 (UNI) India's software industry is on course to achieve a target of 60 billion USD exports by 2010, spurred by increase in outsourcing by global companies, National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) President Kiran Karnik said today.

Talking to mediapersons on the sidelines of the ongoing second global forum on Business Incubation here he said there was enough scope for growth in software exports as only a very meagre part of the global market had been tapped so far. Presently the software exports were growing at the rate of over 30 per cent and "the country is well poised to achieve the target by 2010," he added.

Software and service export revenues were expected to surge to 30 billion USD in the current fiscal said Mr Kiran, heading the over 1100-member association, informed.

Asked about the recent data thefts by employees in the country's Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Industry, he said such incidents were rare and of no cause for concern.

In an effort to strengthen security in the industry, NASSCOM launched the National Skills Registry for IT and BPO professionals.

The online registry provided potential employers with information on employees, ensuring authenticity of data through independent verification and biometric identification of employees, he explained.

On the report India was expected to face a shortage of about five lakh professionals by 2010, he said efforts were already on for collaboration with universities to improve the academic quality by imparting the students lacking soft skills.

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